Elimination of internal reflections and diffractions from junctures in and at the periphery of, a segmented mirror

Abstract

In a transparent molded segmented mirror having individual sectors on a transparent molding and comprising a myriad of reflecting surfaces at the rear side of the mirror away from the viewer, said surfaces located to produce, in the eyes of the viewer, a virtual image, or separate virtual images from separate portions of such molded mirror, there being zones separating the reflecting surfaces, the improvement comprising: (a) a material coating said zones and which includes a light absorber, (b) such material having approximately, the same index of refraction as the transparent molding, (c) whereby undesirable reflections from said zone are substantially reduced, because light impinging thereon cannot be reflected, but is only absorbed. Also, the thickness of light reflecting metallizing material defining the reflective surfaces may be thinned adjacent said zones, and the light absorptive coating may be applied over the thinned metallizing material; and the edges of the molding and of a glass backer may be coated with light absorptives material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.